Universities should use Twitter to engage with students

By eCampus News staff and wire reports

December 17th, 2013

I am a student, and I am a twitterholic. I tweet about everything, from an interesting article I’ve just read to something I saw out of the bus window. Twitter is fast and convenient and it makes life easier, but could it improve learning too?

There has been an explosion of social media around my university, The Guardian reports. Faculties, societies, libraries and even the security have Twitter accounts. Universities are acknowledging the fact that, according to recent research, 75% of students in Europe admit to using Twitter “all the time”. 42% of under 20-year-olds use social media mainly to “stay up to date”.

#UCLChem160x is a hashtag that has been set up for a chemistry course at University College London (UCL) to share course information.

Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at UCL says: “There’s a real need to make sure that students remain engaged. Finding innovative ways to get students interested and connected is a crucial part of what I think teaching is becoming.”

Twitter could be used as another method to reach students, to share content and provide information. The social nature of Twitter means you can ask questions, have conversations, and join discussions or debates.